Sunday (2/24) I went on another running journey with my friend Larry through New York City. We started out with a partial lap of Prospect Park, exiting through Grand Army Plaza and then down to Lafayette Street where we picked up the NYC Marathon course. The roads were a bit icy, but not too bad, although on occasion my foot would hit the occasional icy puddle and get cold and soggy. The course was nothing new at this point and we slowly and steadily made our way through Fort Greene into Williamsburg.

Once in Williamsburg, we stopped for a moment at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration . It’s supposedly the most beautiful cathedral in Brooklyn. Either way it made for a nice picture so I stopped and snapped a photo. We then ran into McCarren Park for a quick stop at the comfort station. Normally at this point we would then head for the Williamsburg Bridge, but today we decided to go for the 59th Street (Queensborough) Bridge.

To get to the 59th Street Bridge, we picked up the NYC Marathon course again and headed towards the Kosciuszko Bridge for our trip into Queens. The Kosciuszko Bridge is the half way point of the NYC Marathon and in my opinion one of the more difficult parts of the course. The view from the bridge is spectacular though. We were fortunate to come across someone walking over the bridge at the same time we were crossing it and asked this person to take a picture of us. Here we are on the bridge with the picture looking southwest towards midtown Manhattan and the Empire State Building. The Newton Creek runs below the bridge and separate Brooklyn from Queens at this point. I also took a picture of the skyline alone so you can get a better idea of the view from here.

Once over the Kosciuszko, we ran through Long Island City towards the 59th Street Bridge. Larry and I talked about a future run in which we would skip the 59th Street and head to the Tri-Borough Bridge instead. In the meantime though, we kept running and made a pit stop at corner bodega about a half mile from the bridge. The pit stop was just in time as I was getting a bit hungry and I unfortunately forgot to bring some Hammer Gel with me, so I bought a Snickers bar and a Gatorade to refuel. It wasn’t what I preferred to eat, but it will do in a pinch. Honestly though when it comes to ultra running, you need to train your stomach to take on a variety of foods which includes something solid; not just gels.

After eating and drinking we made our way onto the 59th Street Bridge. This was undoubtedly the least pleasant part of our run. Only the north side of the bridge was open for running, which meant that you didn’t get the nice views of Manhattan. Plus this side was in the shade and also very icy, in addition to being very cold, windy, noisy and had freezing water dripping down on us from the upper roadway. I would have liked to have gotten several pictures from the bridge, but it was pretty miserable on it and I really didn’t feel like stopping. The only picture I took was looking north from the bridge, on the east side of Roosevelt Island. The most distinguishing landmark of this picture is the smoke stacks which were featured in the movie Conspiracy Theory starring Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts.

Once we made our slow miserable way off of the bridge, we headed south on First Avenue until we could make our way onto the East River Greenway. The East River was flat as glass and the path offered great views of Queens, Brooklyn, and the Manhattan skyline and was just in general a very pleasant place to run. As we made our way south, we ran into another ultra runner that Larry knew, so we stopped to chat for a while. This gave me an opportunity to take one last picture during the run. What you see here is a view of the east river looking north towards the 59th Street Bridge from somewhere around the 30’s (streets between 30-39th Street).

Once we got going again, we decided it would be non-stop until we made it back home. We ran along the East River path under the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges and made our way onto the north side of the Manhattan Bridge. We once again did a nice tempo run over the bridge into Brooklyn and made our way back up Flatbush Avenue, through Grand Army Plaza and back into Prospect Park to complete the loop we started earlier that morning. As we approached our normal exit/entrance to the park Larry asked me if I wanted to go for the extra distance and run down the hill to the Ocean Parkway exit to tack on a couple of extra miles. We were approaching 22 miles at this point and I could feel my pace slowing down a bit so I decided that I had enough for the day and said that we should just call it a day. I also figured that I should perhaps taper a little bit as only a week from now I will be doing the Camseutt 50K out on Long Island. Larry gave me no argument, so we exited the park at the Bartel Pritchard entrance and made our way to the local bagel store for some post workout bagels.

I was a bit tired after this run. I could feel it in my muscles. I attribute that mostly to having taken the past few days off running due to skiing and avoiding running due to shin pain. I hate how it feels like I lose fitness so fast. But maybe I am being just too hard on myself and this new course was a little tougher than I’ve been used to. Anyway, I knew I needed to refuel, so I make a delicious shake consisting of Soy Milk, Chocolate Syrup, 2 Scoops of Recoverite and some Malted Mix. I drank that along with eating Peanut Butter and Jelly on a Multi-Grain bagel. It was a lovely and quick and easy meal. I was satisfied with how my shin felt during the run, although I will admit it was a bit painful the next day. I am really going to need to learn how to ignore this pain so that I don’t even recognize it anymore.

So I finally cried uncle last night and gave up a run. I only made it around the corner of my block when I decided that my 9 mile run just wasn’t going to happen. It felt like I was running on stumps instead of legs. All I could manage was an awkward trot and a very painful one at that. If it was just pain in my legs that I felt I think I would have been ok, however, my form was very poor and resembled nothing like running. I finally had to decide that discretion was the better part of valor and turn back home.

Once inside I sulked on my couch for a good half hour. I sat there fully dressed in my winter gear thinking that perhaps if I gave the ibuprofen I took just before I went out a longer chance to take effect, that perhaps I may be able to salvage the run after all. I knew in my heart though that I needed to be off my legs. I think part of the problem was taking several days off from running when I went on my ski trip Sunday – Wednesday. I think my legs start to heal, but that when I just pick up running again my legs rebel and say what the fuck are you doing? We are trying to heal over here. Damn, I really think that amputation is a viable alternative at times. I haven’t read anything else that seems to offer a quick fix for shin splints.

So as I was saying, I sulked on the couch for about an hour, while my wife insisted I go get on my bike in the basement. I’ve been feeling very depressed lately, which is no doubt due in part to my lack of exercise for the past 4 days. I start to feel really bad if I don’t get a regular fix in. Missing workouts can also put me in a downward spiral as the longer I go without exercise, the worse I feel and the less I feel like exercising.

But anyway, I finally managed to get myself into the basement and onto my bike. I was pleasantly surprised to see my legs reacting well to the work and I easily and quickly ticked off two hours while spinning. I entertained myself while riding by chatting with friends on Twitter and on IM and watching movies on TV. I felt good and actually enjoyed the sweaty workout.

I don’t know when I will try to run again. It was both legs that were painful and I think they are crying for rest. Either that or amputation. I’ll try for another run this weekend.